Why No One Is Sticking Up For Chris Christie

This is the fifth post of a series by Scott Raab, an Esquire writer at large and New Jersey resident who has covered the Port Authority for years. Read part one, part two, part three, and part four.

Pay the least possible attention to the absurd idea that Chris Christie's White House hopes remain alive. Ignore the corps of national Republicans who keep whistling past the elephant graveyard. Anyone expecting the Republican Governors Association to strip Christie of his chairmanship needs immediate professional help; no individual Republican, certainly not Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney, wants to be the first to turn on Christie in public. Each candidate of either party, and every strategist, understands that breaking ranks this early, turning on Christie ahead of the investigations just begun, would be read as a sign of disloyalty and fear. They all have track records, enemies, and secrets of their own.

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Make no mistake, though: Chris Christie is ticking, and has been for a while. Mitt's people vetted him as a running mate and, according to Double Down, a book published late last year about the campaign, they found enough dirt to (according to the authors) conclude, "If Christie had been in the nomination fight against us, we would have destroyed him -- he wouldn't be able to run for governor again."

None of the corruption they uncovered -- including Christie's penchant as U.S. Attorney for reaching deferred prosecution agreements that put tens of millions of dollars in monitoring contracts in donors' and allies' pockets, and led the U.S. Department of Justice to rewrite its DPA rules -- was news to folks who'd kept tabs on Christie's political rise, including good neighbor Rudy.

That's why you're not hearing -- not from Rudy, Mitt, or anyone else -- any version of "I know Governor Christie, and the Chris Christie I know would not knowingly have been part of such a thing." Republicans will speak of Christie solely in terms of his fundraising and his presumptive media victimization. He has no character witnesses.

Christie's toxicity level is already so high as to imperil his vaunted fundraising ability. He was cloistered, almost hidden from public view, during his recent trip to Florida; now there's an early report that on his upcoming lap dance in Texas, Christie will not be joined by the likely GOP candidate for governor.

As for his job-job, New Jerseyans needn't fear: Governor Christie will leave the details of running the joint in good hands, as ever.

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